Day One
by monotony
Summary: One shot, takes place during Afterlife.  Alice's thoughts upon reaching Alaska. Implied Alice/Claire.


**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything related to Resident Evil. This is purely for fun!

**AN: **Ok, this is my first one shot, so hopefully it's not too awful. It takes place during Afterlife, and that's where I've borrowed all the dialogue from.

**AN2: **Implied Alice/Claire.

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><p>Alice had been keeping the video log meticulously for the last 177 days. She wasn't sure why, but suspected it was to convince herself that all these days alone hadn't been a waste. Forcing herself to be productive had been the only way to maintain a certain level of sanity since the colossal failure of her attempt to take down Umbrella in Tokyo. All of her clones were dead and Wesker had escaped, just two more mistakes to add to the ever growing list of terrible things she was responsible for.<p>

One hundred and seventy-seven days without signs of life. It was one hundred and seventy-seven days too many. Alice had gotten use to loneliness when she separated from her friends after escaping Raccoon City, but over the last 18 months she had once again found comfort in the companionship of others. First meeting the convoy in the desert and then with her clones, even if it was disturbing to see your own face talking back at you, it had been comforting to have others around. But now, one hundred and seventy-seven days without signs of life and Alice felt her hope shrinking with each passing day.

One hundred and seventy seven days and Alice was finally nearing the destination of her journey. If there was one place she had the best chance of finding survivors it would hopefully be at the mysterious location known as Arcadia, and her desire to find Claire and the others was the only thing motivating Alice to continue on each day. But the search was frustrating Alice to no end. She had the coordinates but couldn't find the town on any existing map she had seen and the brunette was beginning to think that no such place even existed. With the only hope she had left Alice wished that it wouldn't turn out to be a dead end, she needed to find Claire and the others. One hundred and seventy-seven days without signs of life was too long.

Alice gently landed the plane into the field where all the other aircraft were lined up neatly. Cutting off the engine she hesitated a fraction of a second before opening the cockpit and stepping out onto the wing. This was her last hope. If she set foot off this plane and there was no one here it would all be for nothing and she could add sending Claire off to Alaska to her long list of mistakes.

There must have been over a hundred planes sitting dormant in the field and as Alice walked among them one thing stuck out clearly, silence. Silence had become her worst fear since Tokyo, maybe that was the reason she vigilantly kept the video logs? The quiet emphasized how much she was alone, but as long as she kept talking, kept making videos there was a purpose. People make videos for someone else to watch, so as long as she kept making them there had to be someone else alive to watch, right? Idly wondering how much longer she could fool herself into believing there were others still alive, Alice walked slowly across the field but there was not a soul to be found. She couldn't bear to think about what she would do the following day if she had to start her video 'One hundred seventy-eight days without signs of life.'

Forgetting the videos for a moment Alice mused about what she would do with herself if it turned into 178 days without signs of life. Arcadia had been it, her last plan. After her failure with Umbrella all of her hopes had been riding on finding Claire and the others, but mostly Claire. Alice had been thinking about the redhead constantly the closer she got to Alaska, though she tried not to set herself up for the disappointment of the possibility that Claire wouldn't be here. And with each step she took, it seemed to be becoming a more likely reality. As she walked between two helicopters Alice spotted the ocean up ahead, she slowly walked toward it trying to accept that her friends probably hadn't made it to Alaska at all.

With the beach spread out before her Alice easily spotted a familiar helicopter and her stomach knotted in anticipation. She picked up her pace, heading for the aircraft fearing it might suddenly disappear at any second. She looked around but there was still not a person in sight. Picking up the red notebook from the floor she flipped through the pages as she had done numerous times all those months ago and thought back to that moment when she'd sent them all away. Looking back on it now she wished she had gone with them, at least then she would know what had happened to her friends. But she had been determined to play hero and right the wrongs she'd done as if it would somehow make up for this whole mess, but it never would. Nothing she did ever made a difference. And now she stood next to an empty helicopter alone in Alaska and everyone in the world was gone.

But they couldn't all be gone could they? There were dozens of planes in the field and Claire had obviously been here, so where did they all go? Having this new information Alice automatically moved down the beach to a log near the water and set up her camera for another video log. However this time it did little to comfort her. Even though the redhead and the others had been here they weren't anymore, maybe Alice wasn't meant to find any signs of life. She was responsible for the very thing that had destroyed the world. Maybe this was her punishment, to live out the rest of her days with only the sound of her own voice as a companion. She had let everyone down, and now as she stared out at the water she found it kind of fitting that things had turned out this way. She had pushed away Jill and Carlos after they had risked their lives to save her, and she had pushed away Claire in a futile attempt to follow through on her mission of revenge against Umbrella. Now that she craved companionship the most, it was the one thing she couldn't find. Alice stopped recording and decided this would be her final video log. There was no one left to watch these tapes so what was the point? She needed to accept that she was alone and keeping track of the number of days that she lived as such would only depress her further.

But then something happened, a movement in the distance. Someone was running through the trees along the edge of the beach. Even from her distance Alice could tell it wasn't one of the undead and she felt that almost faded spark of hope burn back to life.

"Hey! Wait!" She shouted and immediately gave chase. She lost sight of the figure in the field of airplanes. "Hello? Hello?" She called out, but no reply came. "Answer me" she demanded, but still nothing. A faint noise drew her attention and she noticed opened doors of one of the planes moving slowly due to the breeze. Drawing her weapons on instinct Alice took slow, deliberate steps towards the aircraft. Her hands weren't as steady as usual but she couldn't help it, as her insides were also clenching with anticipation. Just as she peeked into the plane a half dozen birds came flying out. Dodging the flying mass, Alice straightened out only to be knocked on her ass by the figure she'd been chasing.

Alice reacted just in time to stop the person, a woman completely covered in mud, from stabbing her with wide bladed knife. After a short struggle she was able to kick the woman away and return to her feet. But her attacker came at her again, arm swinging wildly. Alice dodged and was able to get in another kick, this time sending the woman back into the side of the plane, hitting her head on the wing and falling unconscious to the ground. Not at all pleased that her first encounter with another person had ended up in a fight Alice carelessly kicked the woman over to get a look at her face.

It was Claire Redfield, the one person Alice had been looking for these last six months. Claire was a mess, with mud caked everywhere and she was much thinner than when Alice had last seen her. Alice immediately felt guilt swell within her at what she had done, but at the same time it was slightly offset by her sudden joy at realizing she had found Claire. But why had the redhead attacked her?

Alice's gaze lowered to where something was sticking out the top of the Claire's shirt. She pulled down the fabric a little to get a better look and found some sort of device shaped like an insect. It moved and Alice was even more confused than before. Is this what had caused Claire to attack her? What the hell was this thing? And how did the redhead come by it? These were questions only Claire could answer but Alice didn't want a repeat performance when the other woman awoke so with some reluctance she picked Claire up by the arms and dragged her over to the wheel of the plane. Once Alice had tied her friend's hands to the landing gear she went about removing the device.

It was after dark when the redhead finally stirred. Noticing her predicament Claire tried to escape but found it impossible with her hands tied to the wheel. Alice approached cautiously, not sure of what to expect after their earlier encounter. "Hey, it's ok." She tried to reassure but Claire just growled up at her. The face Alice had been dying to see for months looking up at her with anger and distrust. Again Claire pulled on the binds but still couldn't move. "Sorry about that, I had to get this thing off of you. What is this? Who did this to you?" Claire didn't answer, causing a new fear to emerge in Alice. "Do you even know who I am?" Claire continued to just stare at her and for the first time Alice noticed the unrecognition on her face. "My name is Alice." She stated firmly, hoping it would trigger a memory. "We met in the Nevada desert 18 months ago. Any of this sound familiar?" Still nothing from the redhead. "Mikey? Carlos? LJ... K-Mart." Even if Claire didn't remember Alice, she surely wouldn't forget the people she'd been with for years? But Claire didn't seem to recognize any of their names. "You left in a helicopter with a group of survivors headed for Alaska. Arcadia remember?" Still Claire didn't speak.

Alice thought her worst nightmares had all come true before, but this was completely overwhelming. Claire didn't seem to remember a thing, and if she did she wasn't speaking to Alice about any of it. She threw the device to the ground and stomped on it with her boot, a satisfying crunch beneath her foot as it broke. Whoever was responsible for this was going to pay. Alice sighed in frustration, even though she had a companion again it was like she was still alone. Maybe she should change her video log to 'one hundred seventy-seven days and still alone.' But as she glanced over at the oblivious woman, she realized she wasn't alone anymore. Claire was here, albeit tied to an airplane and completely void of all her memories but there nonetheless, and that was something. Alice had done what she had set out to do and found the redhead, so at least she could check that off her very short list of post apocalypse accomplishments.

Claire was still staring at her warily and Alice knew that if the memories didn't return right away it might be awhile before the other woman trusted her again. Alice gave her friend what she hoped was a comforting smile and while Claire's expression didn't change, the redhead did finally stop pulling on her binds. Alice sat down, preparing to fill in Claire as much as she could, hoping that maybe something would trigger her memories. But even if it didn't, even if Claire never remembered Alice before this moment at least neither one of them would be alone any longer.

One hundred seventy-seven days without signs of life was over, and Alice took comfort in seeing day one of the rest of her life begin.


End file.
